 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
King of Kings - by Lewis Lavoie
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| Wikipedia: He was the first king of the break-away ten tribes or Northern Kingdom of Israel, over whom he reigned twenty-two years.According to 1 Kings 11:26-39, Jeroboam was born the son of Nebat an Ephraimite of Zereda whose mother's name was Zeruah (who later became a widow, and could have been leperous as her name translates). Influenced by the words of the prophet Ahijah, he began to form conspiracies with the view of becoming king of the ten tribes; but these having been discovered, he fled to Egypt (1 Kings 11:29-40), where he remained for a length of time under the protection of Shoshenq I. On the death of Solomon, the ten tribes, having revolted, sent to invite him to become their king. The conduct of Rehoboam favored the designs of Jeroboam, and he was accordingly proclaimed "king of Israel" (1 Kings 12:1-20). He rebuilt and fortified Shechem as the capital of his kingdom. He at once adopted means to perpetuate the division thus made between the two parts of the kingdom, and erected at Dan and Bethel, the two extremities of his kingdom, "golden calves," which he set up as symbols of God, enjoining the people not any more to go up to worship at Jerusalem, but to bring their offerings to the shrines he had erected. Thus he became distinguished as the man "who made Israel to sin." This policy was followed by all the succeeding kings of Israel. |
||||||||||||||||||||